I think Prolific spiked the Windows Driver pool, to disable old devices.

[chazzy2501]

Interesting problem, I had need to use a serial board promethean active board on a new laptop. Dug around my buckets and pulled out a genuine prolific serial to usb adaptor.... Nothing happened.

 

I checked device manager and it was installed but the device name was "THIS DEVICE IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED AS OF 2012" this was the device name NOT a message from the OS!

 

I went and got a generic adaptor and when I installed it the device name was "THIS IS NOT A GENUINE PROLIFIC DEVICE" !!That's the device name in device manager!!....

 

I uninstalled the device and the driver, did a new hardware scan and bam! same device name.

 

So have prolific tainted the Windows Update Driver System with Malicious Drivers that nerf old or unofficial devices?

[southhamster]

Wasn't there a weird issue with fake manufactured devices some time ago which ended up all over the place. It was sometimes pot luck as to whether the chip was genuine. Possibly this is an attempt to try and block the dodgy ones which may have backfired?

https://www.theregister.com/2016/02/10/ftdi_says_knockoff_chips_part_of_criminal_operation/?ma=1505433615001